


us two: undefined yet definite

by imaginedandreal



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 18:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14361042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginedandreal/pseuds/imaginedandreal
Summary: No matter who said what about passion, what truly defined them was solid trust and loyalty.





	us two: undefined yet definite

_Sometime in 2015_

Tessa stumbled unexpectedly, going out of a lift the wrong way in practice. Immediately, strong arms gathered her, their gentle squeeze suppressing her sigh of disappointment.

“I’m here. It’s okay, I’m here” – a reassuring murmur close to her ear.

She relaxed, if a tiny bit. Scott was there, so that meant that she was fine. It was always like that, and always would be.

 

 

From the time they entered their late teens, the press and their fans alike became positively obsessed with what they called “explosive chemistry” and other such overblown descriptions. If Tessa were honest, she was slightly insulted by that fixation on the “sexiness sells” side of their performance. For once, she had agreed with Scott when he had said that this “obsession with the romantic side of it sort of cheapened their whole partnership.”

Yes, of course, there _was_ a romantic side, because the time that Tess and Scott were strictly friends remained far away in the past, if one looked at them now. They were passionate about ice dancing and passionate about each other equally.

And yet...back when they first met, when there was not even a hint of anything couple-y in their collaboration, other important factors made them shine.

 

Trust. Devotion. Mutual help and desire to be the best for and with each other.

 

Every time they worked together, Tessa just marveled at how comforting and uplifting Scott was to her. Not that he ever would be otherwise – he said as much in one interview; said that “there was no way of letting T down.” She knew as well as he did that he’d rather die than let her down, betray her. Tessa herself would never do the same to him, either.

 

_1997_

Ilderton, skating rink, their first meeting. Before Scott, Tessa didn’t know what to make of boys, never mind how to skate with one. The boys she had for classmates were rowdy and confusing to deal with. Tessa was nervous when she spotted Scott’s aunt leading him towards her for an introduction. What if Scott doesn’t like _her_? What if they won’t work out as partners?

 

Scott turned out to be completely different from the boys that she was used to. Instinct, rather than experience, told Tessa that she could trust him.

 

She took Scott’s hand when he offered it, sensing that he did not have any ulterior motive. She realized that it was fascinating to skate with him, and even laughed to herself at her own previous hesitation. He smiled at her – she felt it, even though she shyly looked away from him most of the time. By their third practice together, though, Tessa found herself returning his smiles and even often laughing at the jokes he cracked to her. She enjoyed how comfortable and un-awkward it was to skate with this boy.

 

During the costume rehearsal for what was to be their first public routine, Tessa mixed up a step and fell out of rhythm and onto the ice for a few seconds. The little girl was mortified at the prospect of that repeating in front of everyone, but then Scott gave her hand a squeeze.

“That’s okay, Tess. You’re gonna be fine, just believe me.”

Once it came to the actual performance, those words popped back into Tessa’s mind. She soared through the element without a single mistake.

Nothing gave her more joy than Scott’s grin afterwards. She did it. She succeeded. All because he was there to support her. Her partner, her faithful friend.

So it was, year after year. Until...

 

_2008_

The pain had been sudden, sharp, flashing through her leg like hot lightning. She stumbled once, twice. Scott caught her, pulled her close, gently steered her off the ice and onto the nearest bench.

Brave as she tried to be, fear and intense pain won over. “Scott...hurts so much...”

“Shh...I’ve got you. It’s gonna be all right. I promise,” he murmured worriedly, peering into her tear-stained face.

 

Sadly, sincere though the promise was, it turned out to not be all right. In fact, it had been much worse. Tessa remembered it in flashes: the hospital, the tests, and the serious faces of the doctors. Something was wrong with her leg, more wrong than just an ordinary cramp.

Why her? Why, why, _why_ her?

Home, then hospitals again. The surgery. It seemed that all of it divided her life into “before” and “after” – cruelly and irrevocably. She thought, more afraid than she ever was in her life, that this was it. She was done. _They_ were done...

 

_2011_

After their shaky attempt to get back on the ice, the problems with her leg barged back in. That was the only time their unshakable loyalty to each other took a sharp dive. The months of recovery that felt like centuries. Her frustration, anger, depression. Thinking of herself as a failure.

 

Scott was increasingly absent from her side, to make an already horrible situation so much worse. Gradually, he completely stopped coming over.

At first, Tessa missed him terribly, and her heart ached for him almost as much as her injured leg hurt. She did not understand why he was so...distant. Was he disappointed with her?

Abruptly, the loneliness gave way to still more helpless anger. Who _cared_ what _he_ felt? When she, Tessa, woke up and went to sleep without a single positive, comforting thought? When her own future was so bleak, and _not_ by her fault!

 

Day after day, and all those days were bland and cheerless.

Morning, afternoon, evening...

Mom, Jordan, and well-meaning friends that couldn’t understand the enormity of what she experienced...

Exercise, therapy, treatment...

 

A rollercoaster of emotions.

Anger.

Sadness.

A helpless yearning for everything to just go back to normal.

 

She was going back home after yet another therapy session, on one unremarkable day. Yet, her doctors were much more optimistic than they had been before. They spoke about her progress and drew an overall positive prognosis. At least that was a slight ray of happiness after so much despair.

She entered the house, called hello to her mom.

“Someone’s here to see you, Tessie.” She did not notice Kate’s happy tone of voice.

She opened the living room door, and the first thing she saw was her mom smiling, but then -

 

....

 

... _He_?

 

He was sitting on their couch, a cup of tea with her mom’s cookies on the coffee table in front of him. Untouched. Mechanically, Tessa had looked at the _table_ first, her brain and eyes feverishly working together to make sure that it wasn’t an illusion. A beat later, their gazes finally connected.

 

...He!!!

Here? After all that time?

Kate slipped out of the room, but neither of them reacted. Tessa still stood rooted to her spot, hardly thinking that she must have been gaping at him.

He looked anxious, hopeful, pleading. Stood up slowly. Their eye contact never broke.

 His brown eyes, so full of emotion, suddenly shimmered, and Tessa was stunned to see painful regret take over his expression. He raised his arms towards her, ever so cautiously.

 

It was as if someone shook her. The months of solitude and sadness and anger – at herself, at him, at the whole world – vanished, flooded over with a tide of relief so fierce, that she didn’t even register herself stumbling forward.

“ _Scott_...” she choked out, and the single word communicated more than a million would.

Strong, gentle, familiar arms...Those arms that she missed even in the throes of anger at his absence, they circled her again. She clutched him too, just as tightly, half-aware that she had buried her face into his shoulder and was crying.

Fully aware of his voice murmuring her name over and over, and that made her cling to him harder, which he returned, as if someone was about to rip them apart.

His face was glistening with tears the same as hers was. A moment or two of looking at each other, both dizzy with relief, and then more tears of joy, and she was trembling all over and whispering “Scotty, Scotty...” into his neck.

 

They stood like that for ten minutes, or ten hours, or ten lifetimes.

 

“Will you forgive me for not being there for you?” he whispered, the second they let each other go a bit, to look at her again. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, like he was bracing himself for her to come to her senses and throw him out. “I know I probably don’t deserve it, but Tess...Kiddo, honey – if you forgive me, I’ll never leave you again. I promise, I _swear_ to you.”

She looked at him through the short but passionate speech. When he finished, she slowly raised her hand to brush away the last of his tears, and put her palm softly onto his cheek.

 “How can I not forgive someone I love?”

 It slipped out, unplanned and completely sudden. She felt her own cheeks redden furiously, and now it was his turn to stare at her. But, she reasoned, even as her heart thundered like crazy, if it was true, why not say it?

He swallowed hard, and then snatched her closer yet again, but it was not to cry or apologize. He pressed his lips to her forehead, and her cheeks, and her throat, and she giggled, giddy and shivery, and the giggles were mixed with tiny sobs.

 

Laughing and crying, what would remain her most sincere display of happiness in the future.

 

Finally, her hectic laughter changed to a smile, and that faded too under his intense gaze. His face was suddenly was so close, that she could see flickers of gold in his eyes, those beloved eyes. The next thing she knew their lips connected, and so they told each other everything that was necessary. The kiss was forgiveness, healing, and promises that would never be broken again. His hands threaded into her hair tenderly as his mouth moved against hers.

 

She detested the abrupt and urgent need to breathe; she would have gladly kissed him until she fainted. But he smiled at her, softly, adoringly, and leaned his forehead to hers to look in her eyes.

“I’m so lucky, Tutu,” he said, and her eyes prickled with new tears. “Because the girl I love more than anything loves me back.”

Her heart skipped, another little burst of pure joy. “I’m so glad _you_ are back,” she replied, resting her head onto his shoulder.

“I’ll never let you down. Believe me. Never. I will always be there for you.”

She simply listened to him, tucked in his embrace, and did truly believe him. Against all obstacles, anything that could threaten them again.

 

_2018_

The Pyeongchang Olympics were near, and they threw themselves into planning and training with a fierceness that Tessa never remembered them having before. Dear Marie and Patch were so supportive and helped them every step of the way, and she was so grateful. Overall, Tessa was so deeply grateful to fate and luck and whatever else that caused it that her partner was Scott, whose mere presence made her fly on that ice as if she had wings.

 

 

Minutes before their short dance, Tessa’s heart hammered so intensely, she was almost afraid to faint. That was it, now or never.

Scott came up to her for their traditional pre-performance hug, and she gathered him close.

“We’ve got this, right?” she whispered, timidly, but hopefully.

“Of course we do, Tess,” he murmured somewhere into the top of her head, his arms around her soothing, but infusing her with determination. “I’ve got you, we’ve got each other, and we can do this. We _will_ do this, T. You’ll see.”

 

That was all there was to it. He said. She believed. That was the essence of their relationship, more than ever now. On ice and off.

 

She couldn’t contain her emotions, the moment they finished. Laughing and crying and so full of relief and overwhelming happiness. Scott swooped towards her and pulled her into his arms. They did it, they really did it – the only words buzzing around in Tessa’s mind, and, she was sure of it, in Scott’s it was the same.

They did that, together.

 

The seconds before their score was announced were nerve-wracking to the point that Tessa was amazed she did not lose her mind.

Waiting, trembling, positively vibrating with anticipation...

The calculating was almost done, almost, almost...

Come on already, _come on..._ She and Scott’s and Patch’s and Marie’s eyes were glued to that display.

 

“ _YES_!” The shout that Scott let out was so fierce it startled Marie, so that she jerked back as he leaped up, and made Patch laugh even as he applauded with all his might. But Tessa and Scott hardly took notice of that, gripping each other close, grinning and crying and repeating, in passionate whispers, how _absolutely proud_ they were of one another.

 

The podium, their victory. Scott wrapping a tender arm around her waist, kissing her shoulder. Tessa, blinking away tears. Through it all, Scott (as he confessed later, too) was intoxicated with triumph to the point that he made to lean in to kiss her – in front of the world. As thrilled as she was herself, a tiny voice of reason cut in, and she leaned away, gently but firmly. There was always time for that later, after all.

They kissed with their gazes instead.

 _I love you so much._ His eyes were impossibly soft and affectionate. _I’ve never been so proud of you._

 _And you are my heart, my soul,_ hers told him. _I never could have done it without you_.

 

And they stood proudly together, blissful in the knowledge that they won because they trusted each other, because their lows became highs simply due to how loyal and strongly bonded they were together.

 

_February 20, 2020_

It was so hard. Awfully, painfully, blindingly difficult. Tessa had no idea how something could just _hurt_ so much – more than her accidents from the past, more than any pain she had experienced.

At first, it was nothing she could not breathe through. She heard the stories, from her mom and Scott’s, listened to their advice on how to relax, and actually thought that, with the right mindset, it couldn’t be quite so bad.

Yeah, right. In an hour or so, she was screaming the room down and all but fighting off the doctor and the nurses, and Scott himself. Served him right to be there. He should see all of it, every minute of her agony, she thought wildly, and never lay a finger on her again.

She didn’t feel the least bit bad for shouting at him, not in the moment. “How could you do this to me? I _hate_ you!”

He sat next to her, with a deliberately humble expression, and never so much as grimaced when she clawed at his hand in despair. “I know, T,” he said evenly. “But it’s almost over, and you can do it. You know you can.”

“Shut...your...mouth!” Tessa exploded, as another contraction hit. “Oh, I will _kill_ you, Scott...goddamn...Moir!”

 

The doctor and nurses and her mom who popped in to check on her, all hid their smiles and signalled to Scott to prop her up. It wouldn’t be long now.

“Tutu...listen to me, before the murder, yeah? I know it’s hard, but you have to push now. Come on, I’ve got you. Just push.”

She used the last shred of courage that was left in her to believe him. How could he keep looking at her with such sympathy and love even though she was beside herself like that? Her husband was an angel, to deal with her frenzied state and still offer her such steady support.

 

Her fury changed to utter exhaustion. She was hardly willing to fight anymore.

“So tired...too tired, Scotty. Want to stop...”

And yet he murmured to her encouragingly, and rubbed her back, and helped her get back into concentration.

At long last, it was over. Truly over, and their daughter, a tiny bloody creature, announced herself with a piercing little cry.

Tessa dropped back onto the pillows, relief and adrenaline shaking her from head to toe, and Scott, blinking away tears, lowered his head to kiss her cheek. That was it. She was done with the struggle. Their daughter was finally born.

 

Hours later, they sat together in her recovery room, gazing at their perfect daughter, who had dozed off in Tessa’s arms. Scott had held her first actually – Tessa reasoned to herself that she would let him have the honor after what anger he had to endure at her mercy. Scott was overjoyed to see that the tiny child’s eyes were large and green (“Right...gorgeous green,” Tessa quipped, using his own words that had become their inside joke).

“I’m sorry. I must have sounded crazy. I didn’t mean the things I yelled at you back there,” she said softly, after a silence. Scott just smiled, wrapping his arm around her tighter.

“Don’t apologize, T. God knows what I would have said in your shoes,” he chuckled.

“But the thing is, I did it because you were there to help – even if I kind of went off and used your hand as a stress ball,” she confessed, indicating his left hand that was still somewhat red.

“I could be a doula,” Scott joked, and she had to smother her laughter not to wake their daughter.

“You certainly have the talent for it, only I don’t think that’s such a good idea. The moms will all fall for your charms. And I can’t have that,” she teased back, as he laughed quietly himself and leaned closer.

“Here’s what we should think about now. What’s her name?” he reminded her, nodding at the baby.

“What do you think about Victoria? Tori, for short?”

Scott looked at her, surprised but without disagreement. “That sounds pretty...but why Victoria?”

Tessa gazed into the baby’s tiny face, pure love washing over her heart. “Because I feel like she is our greatest victory so far. Because we created her together, and brought her into this world together.”

“I...” Scott’s voice was watery with emotion. He cleared his throat. “Well, leave it to my vastly brilliant wife to pick our daughter the best possible name.”

 

Two days later, when the little family was leaving the hospital, Tessa and Scott were never more sure of their choice. Tiny Tori Moir was more valuable than any medal or award they had ever won. She, like nothing else, was the living embodiment of what trust and the mutual devotion of two people, loving each other enormously, could create.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes, I know I have "Tangible Moments" to finish, but this was buzzing around in my head and I had to do it. As always, enjoy :D


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